the rest of 2016

As I wrote on the back of our Christmas (post)card:

2016 was full of new things and new adventures, but there were also tears and many lasts…

So, let’s take a look back on the rest of 2016. Grab a cup of coffee!

From where I left off…

In MAY, we were crazy busy packing up the house, buying a new house, and doing all the end-of-school-year type of stuff. Joe and I met the kids on the last day of school at the doors instead of waiting in the carpool line. As Hannah came out, she cried. Then I cried. We stopped there on the sidewalk and just held her. It was the saddest last day of school. She loved Ridge Road Primary.

We watched our favorite babysitters graduate and had farewell get-togethers with friends. On May 28th, my beautiful butterfly and polka-dot “splish-splash” princess danced in her recital (wings not pictured).

On May 31st we closed on our house in Valdosta. After years of living in parsonages, it was a momentous occasion: the first house we’ve bought together.

At the beginning of JUNE, we said goodbye to our home in Sandersville. We were there five years – which is about as long as I’ve lived in any house (ever), our longest church appointment to date, and the only home our children have ever known. Our last Sunday at SUMC was tough. Joe celebrated Holy Communion, gifts were presented to us, and the final hymn, “Here I am, Lord” (one very dear to us) was sung. Afterwards, at lunch in the fellowship hall, we gave hugs and said goodbye to our church family. There wasn’t much eating going on at our table!

We loved our church and made special friendships, both inside and out of it, that we hope will stand the test of distance and time. In those last few days, we played, swam and ate, and soaked up all the time we could get with friends. It was a terribly sad goodbye and we shed countless tears. We were so grateful for the love shown to us on our way out: for the drop-bys, for my beautiful hydrangea (thanks JT!) and for Mexican food delivery for our last-night’s dinner (thank you Sheppards!).

My sweet friend, Becky, came over to help us with the last-minute craziness and for that I will be forever grateful. I so needed the help. We were exhausted and had been up most of the night. She is one special person and a true walk-the-walk follower of Jesus. She has since moved away, too, but I am so glad our paths crossed in that small town and she joined my small group.

Speaking of, these girls (two not pictured), took me out for a going-away dinner. I love them so.

With a moving truck and two cars packed to capacity, we left Evergreen Drive in our rearview and drove south.

The summer went by fast. We were busy getting settled and making connections in our new town. We also had some fun. We spent lots of hours at the YMCA pool and splash pad. Hannah passed the swim test like a champ and was swimming laps by August. Joseph, not being as comfortable as big sis in the water, also made major progress.

Hannah and Joseph attended a VBS and Hannah went to Valdosta State’s soccer camp. We introduced the kids to Star Wars. There was no turning back…

We played with new friends, had tea parties, popped popcorn and watched movies, built forts and played dress-up. These two were especially excited to have a big tub to take bubble baths in:

In June, we took a much-needed vacation and went to Miramar/Santa Rosa Beach. It was the kids’ first time at the Gulf and they had a blast! We played for hours in the ocean, on the sand, at the pool. And we ate yummy food. Seafood, obviously, but also found a delicious Italian restaurant and a funky place called Louis Louis in Santa Rosa Beach.

It was a thumbs-up trip for sure. {Hannah’s modeling my new sunglasses. We had a great time at the outlet mall in Destin one afternoon, too.}

In JULY, we celebrated the Fourth by having our first-ever family water balloon fight.

Since our church wasn’t started yet, we attended several others around town. It was kinda weird sitting as a family of four at church every week. That’s something that happens only on the rare Sunday Joe takes off. I liked it. But I also like seeing him up front, which is where he truly belongs. He sure missed preaching, and I missed hearing him preach. No doubt that is his calling.

Gran Gran came to visit for a few days and the kids had her busy – playing outside, going for walks, and putting on shows for Daddy and me. This is my favorite picture from her stay, the show was titled “Future Heroes of America”:

We also lost teeth, one unintentionally when Joseph fell face-first on a hardwood floor while over for dinner at friends’. (Good first impression, no?!) It was terrible, actually. You know what they say about trauma to the mouth. It was scary and, at first, we couldn’t even tell how bad the damage was. That was his first tooth gone, and he lost four more a short time after (naturally, thank goodness). The tooth fairy has come to the new house quite a bit.

My snaggletooth twins:

AUGUST came and with it the start of school. A new school. New teachers, new friends, new everything. One thing that’s definitely a departure from what we were used to is there’s no uniform or strict dress code. While I love a uniform for ease of mornings, I like how they can get some wear out of all the cute clothes in their closets. {We also always pick clothes out before going to bed, which makes things smoother in the morning.}

As I’ve done the last several years, the kids made their own first day signs. I helped Joseph some.

One of my favorite parts of the day has always been the drive home from school. I love to see their usually-smiling faces at pick-up – like little puppies excited to see their owner. I’m sentimental, and while I love them being at school so I can get some work done, I miss them when they’re gone.

Well. Not even two weeks into school, they decided they wanted to start riding the bus home. They saw all these neighborhood kids getting off the bus and wanted in on all the fun. It did give me more time in the afternoons, and they still were excited to see me. In fact, as soon as the doors open on the school bus at the corner, they hit the ground running, right into my arms. They are getting a little too big, and a little too fast and I have been tackled a time or two. Some days, we just sit right there in the front yard and have our debriefing. I love it.

A super-busy fall ensued. In SEPTEMBER, Hannah started dance (ballet/tap/jazz), we welcomed football season, made it through Hurricane Hermine, and celebrated Hannah’s 7th birthday on the 9th. We gave her the choice of a party or a short trip to the beach, and she didn’t hesitate. Back to the Gulf we went, spending a weekend with my older brother, Ben and his wife, Katie, who were there from Cincinnati on vacation. Hannah is all about art supplies, Legos, and her American Girl doll, Maddalena (her middle name). She is an easy one to shop for and was thrilled with everything she opened.

We went up to Atlanta for a Georgia Tech game and stayed one night each with two of my dearest friends, Jennifer and Julie. At the game, we ran into some of our friends (and GT alums) from Sandersville, had great seats with Julie and 3 of her children, and Hannah got a picture with BUZZ!!

At home and not Halloween. Just a Friday afternoon…

At the beginning of OCTOBER, Gran Gran and Poppy came to babysit, and Joe and I flew out to California for a church planting conference and to meet our coach. Dave is one of the best there is and works with Rick Warren. Oh, and, we got to meet him, too. And that was pretty awesome. As I said in my Instagram post, what God has done through him has changed my life.

We had a good time out there in Orange County.

We got back home and were quickly knee-deep in soccer season. Hannah and Joseph were in separate leagues this year (U6 and U8) which made practices and game days a little challenging. There were times when I’d run from one field, across the rec complex, to another field, and when Joe and I would switch at half time so there’d be one parent there to cheer the whole game.

Hannah is becoming quite the player and Joseph was just excited to be on the field, which, if you remember last spring when he didn’t want to leave the water cooler, is major progress. {I wasn’t going to even sign him up, but he insisted he wanted to play this time.} We spent 3-4 days/week at the rec fields. It was a busy time, but we all loved it.

Joe and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on October 14th. We got a babysitter and went to dinner. While I would’ve loved to have gone on a big, romantic trip, like so many couples seem to do, we had just gone to California for work and were super busy getting ready for our first service. There’s also this thing called a budget, and a trip was not in it.

I’m gonna do a separate post about Shoreline, but we were very excited with how well that went.

We went camping! Well, sorta. We had our first family campout in the backyard. We bought a fire pit, pitched the tent, made s’mores and made it all the way to 7am. I’d call that a success.

The kids decided early what they wanted to be for Halloween and even got in some “practice”. He rescued the damsel in distress. Or, as Joe says, “She sets hearts on fire. He puts them out.”

When the actual day came, Joseph was sick (again…), but we put a mask on his little head and just went trick-or-treating around the block.

In NOVEMBER, we traveled back to Atlanta for the baptism of our goddaughter, Leah. We stayed with Julie and, as always, the gaggle of kids had the best time. We squeezed in a birthday party for Leah’s sister, Audrey, and breakfast with cousins Liam and Marshall.

Hannah learned to ride her bike. Our old neighborhood was really hilly and not conducive to bike rides. Now we live on the perfect street for it and she was eager to be like the big kids.

We wrapped up soccer, had another preview service, and a great time with Granddaddy and “Mrs. Renee” (my dad and his wife) when they came to visit from the Northwest.

After two years of going to Highlands, NC for Thanksgiving, we decided to spend this past year with family in Savannah. My dad had 3 of his children and 3 of his grandchildren together for a pizza dinner at Vinnie’s in City Market. Hannah (and Daddy) ran a little turkey trot and I ran the 4-mi turkey trot. We spent a beautiful day out on Moon River, and played at Meme’s house.

That weekend, we cheered (loudly) as Georgia Tech beat Georgia and decorated our new home for Christmas. We also surprised the kids with our first trip to Wild Adventures, the theme park down here.

November ended with Joseph’s surgery, finally removing those annoying tonsils and adenoids that were giving him such misery.

He did so well. I was worried given all the scary research about bad recoveries, but he was amazing. He wanted to eat that very day, when he was on a liquids-only diet. We had to cheat, he was starving! By the next day, he was begging for anything – everything! We stayed on a soft-foods diet for a little while, but he couldn’t wait to have tortilla chips! There was some pain management, but so much easier than we had anticipated.

The night of his surgery, Hannah had her dress rehearsal. At the beginning of DECEMBER, she performed in her first Nutcracker, playing one of the little mice. Her part was really short, but really cute, and she loved every second of that experience.

A week later, Joe ran an incredible time of 3:03 in the Kiawah Island Marathon. After the race, we spent the day exploring Charleston. Meme came, too, and it was cold, but we had a great time!

The day after our third preview service, we flew to NYC… That will have to be a separate post. It was SO much fun.

And just like that, it was Christmas. Meme came for a two nights and Joe’s parents visited the day after. We slowed down and spent the whole week before New Year’s relaxing and playing, and not leaving home a whole lot. We watched countless movies and got together a couple times with friends. It was wonderful.

As the back of our Christmas card stated, it was definitely a BIG year for us. I tried to condense it here with this post, hitting all the highlights, but it took a while. Are you even still reading? Did you have to get a refill of coffee…or wine?

If so, thank you. I don’t think it’s too late to wish you a happy new year and many blessings in 2017.

I promise not to cover seven months in a single post again!